God Works in Mysterious Ways

This weekend I posted about how God often prepares our hearts for what's ahead. Nelson and I had the discussion about suffering right before I found out my uncle has cancer. I emailed the post to my brother, now Rev. Mr. Aaron Killips. He was in the midst of preparing his homily for yesterday at the North American College. He responded by sending me a copy of that homily which I am including below.

Let me just say, "Wow, Aaron!” Not only are you a good homilist, as I witnessed in Rome and while you were home over Christmas, but now I see that you listen to the Holy Spirit too. Isn't it amazing how God moves across time and space (and oceans) to give us what we need when we need it? Thank you for sharing this with me and allowing me to share it with others.



Homily—Monday January 15, 2007—Hebrews 5:10

The Value of Suffering

“He learned obedience from what He suffered.” Suffering is never an easy subject to bring up and yet it is present at some point in everyone’s life. One has only to glance at our prayer board here at the house to see that many of us are suffering right now personally or have family and friends who are suffering. When people find out that I am studying to be a priest some of them ask, “Why does God allow suffering?” Suffering is looked upon by so many people as punishment.

Suffering however, should not be viewed as a punishment but as a gift. You may be asking yourself how in the world can suffering be a gift. Blessed Teresa of Calcutta said that suffering is the most underutilized gift which God gives to us. When I first heard this I must admit that I was taken aback. Did I hear her correctly? Did she really say that suffering was a gift from God? How can pain and hurt be a gift? God didn’t create suffering, but God uses it for greater purposes.

In my first year of seminary I had the opportunity to learn about suffering first hand. I tore the ACL in my right knee and needed surgery to receive a new ligament. The doctor told me that this would be a very painful surgery and boy was he right! I was blessed to have had a spiritual director who spent the month before the surgery talking to me about the opportunity I had been given by God. Opportunity! I asked? He explained how I had a chance to offer my pain for the souls in purgatory and for those who had no one to pray for them. He drilled this into me. Looking back I am grateful that I was given the opportunity to offer up my pain for others.

Jesus Christ chose to redeem us through His suffering. He could have chosen a less painful way to save us but He didn’t. He chose to suffer for each one of us. Loving and obeying God is easy when things are going well. When we are able to love and obey God when we suffer, how much greater is that love and how much more grace we receive in those times. John Paul II says in Salvifici Doloris, “it is suffering, more than anything else, which clears the way for the grace which transforms human souls.” Most of us are priests or will be priests. As the author of Hebrews tells us, “every high priest is taken from among men and made their representative before God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.” What an opportunity we have to take our suffering and offer it up for the people who are entrusted to us!

As we begin this New Year, let us be mindful of those who are suffering. If you are suffering, know that you are not alone. Jesus Christ, He who redeemed us by His suffering, walks with you. If you see a brother who is suffering go to him. Pray for him. Pray with him. Take him to dinner or out for a beer. Bear the cross you are given with great hope and support others in carrying their crosses, for we truly can take great comfort in the words of St. Paul in his letter to the Romans, “We are…fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him. I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us.”